27 replies to this topic

[Sgt Raynor]

Thanks for the quick reply.
Yeah, forgot to mention it, it is a Lenovo G505s Laptop, about three years old. I always make sure it's running on high performance, I also put the graphics to that setting in that Radeon Control Centre. I'm gonna try the thing with the heatsinks, it does get quite hot when MWO is playing.
Do I have to create that .cfg in the main MWO folder?
Thanks.

[Tarl Cabot]

Double check the Power Plan settings. Players have reported having FPS issues w/MWO, knowing they had previously set it to High Performance, but only after asking them to recheck, it had been reset/defaulted to Balanced or Power Saver.

Yes, put the cfg in the main MWO folder. That caps your FPS so that CPU turbo boost does not kick in as often. When that happens more power is applied to fewer cores to increase their speed, and byproduct is more heat. Hit thermal threshold and things starts to drop to underclocked to allowing items to cool off.

It would not be a bad idea for a cooling pad, or a fan blowing under/over the laptop.

This shows how to partially disassemble your laptop to get to the fan and the heatsinks. It appears the heatsinks themselves are linked to just one fan. Review it and other videos, as it would also be a good idea to clean up and apply fresh thermal paste.



Also, if you are interested in upgrading to Windows 10, there is a workaround if you use Windows Assistive Technologies.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 26 January 2017 - 12:29 PM.

[Martel66]

This is more for the original poster's problem. I wanted to mention I had the same problem as described and I wasn't running any MSI software. However I was running CAM by NZXT which must be similar because when I exited that software the problem disappeared.

Looks like MWO doesn't run well with other software aimed at controlling hardware and game performance.

[Sgt Raynor]

Well, I have done as recommended, cleaned the fan and put new thermal paste on the processors and actually checked my fps in-game after.
Fair to say, nothing has changed. I still hover around at 10 fps, dropping to 5-7 when brawling or taking fire.
It really bothers me because i know my laptop is perfectly capable of delivering somewhat smooth performance in this game but for some reason doesn't do so anymore, only on very rare occasions. I can't locate the variable that makes it perform smoothly. I have tried to tinker around with a user.cfg, that didn't change anything either. I'm growing tired of having to play with such a disadvantage all the time it's friggin frustrating.
Does anyone have suggestions, short of getting a new rig, that might help? There has to be something..

Thanks again

[Tarl Cabot]

First, how is the heat now? Are you using a program, and if so, which one, to monitor heat, CPU speed and GPU speed?

Do you have the Power Options set to High Performance and it is pulled into an AC outlet?

Do you the Catalyst/Crimson set to default settings or Performance?

Game-wise, all lowest settings and AA off?

I would suggest turning off Turbo boost, and setting it at 98% instead of the 99%. Turboboost is like a poor man's overclocking, where power is increased to one core which generates heat for that one core, which then will trigger drop to min speed to cool off once a threshold is hit.
https://www.tautvida...el-turbo-boost/

But you may want to try this first, to underclock your system, your GPU and prevent Turbo boost from kicking in. We have had others that had underclocked their GPU, which saw a slight increase in FPS but more important a steady FPS instead of some yo-yo effect.

http://www.tomsguide...ing-gaming.html

Also, are you playing the game DX9 or DX11?

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 04 February 2017 - 02:10 PM.

[Sgt Raynor]

Hi, sorry for the long delay.

I think I've found what caused the poor framerates, it seems to be quite simply temperature. I've bought myself one of those cooling pads you suggested and after the first test run today it works a treat. Framerate is constantly at around 16 fps, which isn't a lot for most of you guys i guess but makes the game more than playable for me. For the first test run I used the 64bit version, all settings to low, disabled cockpit glass and monitors, used full window mode and ran 1280x786. It also ran in DX9 mode.
Thanks for all the input, I'm going to update whether it remains stable when I've played more games. I'm also considering using MSI Afterburner for monitoring purposes although I'm not sure if it impacts performance.

Edited by Sgt Raynor, 15 February 2017 - 10:32 AM.

[Hestan]

Just did a fresh windows 10 install and had this problem. Find the executable and go into properties. Find the compatibility tab and put a check in the "Disable display scaling..." box.

[Gettothechoppa]

Natred, on 16 December 2016 - 07:11 AM, said:

I found a fix for this on Windows 7. Find the mechwaerior exe file and go to properties and click the box something about force dpi or something like that. Sorry not at home now to tell you what it says exactly.

Disable dpi scalling worked for me

It has to do with UI scaling. IT's a registry entry you can use to force windows OS to enable DPI aware scaling. It's not 100 percent fool proof. I stumbled upon it while attempting to fix UI scaling issues in Photoshop, on 4k systems the crap is almost unuseable. =^-^= Tiny menu's, Tiny Text, Tiny everything despite forcing windows to it's max of 150 percent scaling. The OS can only do so much, the application dev's need to step up and fix it..

• This is not new, 1080p and beyond has been around for quite a while. The entire damned software industry is just flatfooted by the explosion in ultrahigh resolution graphics ability in the market place, you'd think they would adapt. to it by now.
  
• UI scaling is not unique to any particular OS either, It's an industry wide problem.

I Don't recall the details right now, but google registry hacks for forcing DPI aware scaling, you might come across it. I had to name a file similar to the EXE of every file I wanted to force DPI aware (with DPI scaling instructions in it). It has to refer back to the registry edit also.

BTW MWO is still unusable on anything close to UHD settings in part due to microscopic UI of mech fitting bay (does not scale), all menus and other UI not related to the actual in game mech combat. Oddly enough that one scales OK. Forcing DPI won't fix that, it's hard coded. That's a PGI issue.

Edited by Gettothechoppa, 20 February 2017 - 04:06 AM.